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China did not report any new deaths from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, similar to the previous day, health authorities said, cited by Reuters.

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Omicron - the new coronavirus variant 1036

Officially, the victims of the disease since the beginning of the pandemic continue to be 5,241.

Beijing and Shanghai are starting to learn to live with covid.

Metro trains in China's two biggest cities were packed with commuters today after authorities there decided to ease Covid-19 measures and move towards a return to some normality despite the millions infected across the country.

After years of relentless anti-epidemic restrictions, President Xi Jinping abandoned the zero-covid policy.

This happened amid protests and an increase in the spread of the infection.

But after the initial shock at the sharp reversal in policy and the few weeks that residents of Beijing and Shanghai had to spend at home treating themselves to Covid-19 or trying to avoid contracting it, there are signs that life is returning to at least some semblance of normal. you're rhythm.

In addition to the full subway, the traditional for these cities rush hour traffic jams of people going to work were formed along the main road arteries.

At the end of last week, the annual Christmas market in the Shanghai Waterfront area was filled with people.

There were also large crowds of visitors for the winter holiday period at Shanghai Disneyland and also at the Universal Studios theme park in Beijing, where people queued up dressed for Christmas.

This weekend, the number of tourist visits to scenic spots in the southern city of Guangzhou increased by 132 percent compared to the previous one, reported the local publication "Twenty-first Century Business Herald".

China is the last major country in the world to decide to start treating covid as an endemic (permanent presence of an infectious disease in an area).

Containment measures have caused China's $17 trillion economy to experience its biggest slowdown in nearly half a century, affecting global supply chains and trade.

Rising cases of COVID-19 in China may be causing the virus to mutate

In the short term, the economy is expected to take more damage before it starts to recover in the new year as the Covid wave spreads to industrial areas and workers fall ill, analysts say.

Tesla's factory in Shanghai temporarily halted work on Saturday, implementing a plan for the factory to shut down most of its operations during the last week of December.

The company did not specify the reason for its decision.

Despite a record rise in cases across the country, no deaths have been reported in China for six days, even as crematoriums face growing demand for their services.

Chinese authorities have narrowed their definition of a covid-related death.

They began to count as dead from the disease only people with pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by it, which caused bewilderment among health experts around the world, notes Reuters.

China's healthcare system is under enormous strain.

Employees are being called to work even if they are sick, and retired medics are being mobilized in remote municipalities to help, state media reported.

Omicron - the new coronavirus variant

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